Crops have suffered on nearly 1 mln ha from May frosts, particularly 850,000 ha of grain crops - Deputy PM Patrushev

SIRIUS. May 31 (Interfax) - Crops have suffered from May frosts in Russia on nearly one million hectares, including 850,000 hectares of grain, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Friday at the All-Russia Grain forum.

"The spring has not been easy. The returning frosts have resulted in the suffering of over a million hectares of crops. Of these, about 850,000 ha are grain," Patrushev said.

Another 700,000 hectares have suffered. "Some regions have already introduced a state of emergency at the level. However, given the scale of the damage, a federal state of emergency is planned for some of them," Patrushev said.

He said reseeding of crops that had perished in the affected regions was almost complete. "So I expect that the crop mix will be generally observed," he said.

Spring sowing exceeded 45 million hectares, which is almost 80% of the planned area. "In a couple of weeks, some regions of the south and north Caucasus might already begin harvesting new crops," he said.

As reported, the grain harvest this year could reach 132 million tonnes, including 85 million tonnes of wheat. Last year's harvest was 144.9 million tonnes, including 92.8 million tonnes of wheat.